Following a lean patch in England and Zimbabwe, India opener Abhishek Sharma smashed a whooping 25 sixes and 15 fours in a local match en route to a 91-ball 233 on Sunday in a match of Punjab State Inter-District One-Day tournament.
Playing for Amritsar, Abhishek went hammer and tongs against a hapless Tarn Taran bowling attack to power his team to a mammoth 533/8 in 50 overs. For Amritsar, Abhay Choudhary and Abhinav Sharma also contributed with half-centuries. Abhishek was finally dismissed by Ashish Lowrance.
In reply, Tarn Taran could manage 313/8 despite Arshdeep Singh’s hundred as they fell short by 220 runs. With the ball, Abhishek picked up two wickets, conceding 71 runs from his nine overs.
Abhishek’s knock comes after his flop show in Zimbabwe, where he managed scores of 2, 8, 1 in three T20Is. Prior to that in England, the southpaw scored 59, 43, 10, 16, 3 in five T20Is. Earlier against Ireland, Abhishek registered scores of 49 and 0 in the two-match T20I series.
Reacting to this knock, fans on social media erupted in joy. “What a comeback. Abhi bashed 9 to 5 taran taran farmers,” wrote one user.
Abhishek Sharma drops in ICC T20I Rankings
Meanwhile, Abhishek, who began the year as no.1 batter in ICC T20I Rankings, dropped to second last month, after India’s 0-2 loss to Ireland. Although Abhishek scored 49 runs in the series, the top spot went to teammate Ishan Kishan, for his performances for a longer period of time.
So far, Abhishek has played 69 List A matches, scoring 2196 runs at an average of 33.78 and strike-rate of 100.18 including eight fifties and four tons. He is yet to feature for India in ODIs.